Monthly Archives: May 2016

Another couple of favourite products feature on today’s Congrats card.

I love the brayer, sadly for me, I haven’t used it much in the last few years. I guess I have had so many other things to play with I had forgotten about lil’ ol’ brayer.

Featuring the emboss resist technique, I first stamped my imagery in VersaMark. Here i used the leaf image from the Grateful Bunch stamp set. Next I sprinkled over white embossing powder and heat set it. Next I created a coloured panel over the top using two complimentary green inks.

Starting with Mint Macaroon, I inked up the brayer, by gently rolling it over the ink pad until the ink evenly coated the roller. Next, I lightly rolled the brayer over top of my embossed image, to apply the ink. I just kept rolling over and over the image until the ink was evenly applied to my panel. Next came Cucumber Crush, with this colour I only rolled the ink over part of the embossed image, allowing the Mint to shine through too.

I added a layered flower from the same stamp set and its coordinating Blossom Bunch punch and finished the card off with my other favourite retiring item – Expressions natural elements.

The layout for this card, came from the sketch layout challenge over at Can You Case it? [#122]. I hope they like my take on the sketch.

I created this card for a special lady in my team. I hope she likes it!

I just wanted to have one last little play with the teeny tiny balloon punch from the Party Punch Pack before it retired.

The colour combination has come from this weeks colour challenge over at Can You Case it? [CYCI#121]
Light purple and yellows are not colours I tend to go for, so naturally I’m curious about the challenge!

I’ve seen many gorgeous collections of balloons flying all over social media. Whilst they do look gorgeous they also can look daunting to attempt and I’m often left wondering how to assemble them in such a way they don’t look like a hodge podge of balloons!

There are different ways you can achieve the same result, but to make this easy, here is my approach:

Punch out a range of sizes of balloon in the colour scheme you are using

Pick a direction for the way you would like your balloons to fly – in my card they are flying up to the right

Start with the largest balloon in your size range and place it on the left – do not use adhesive at this point

Using a balloon in next size down, place above and to the right slightly

Using another size balloon, place it a little more to the right and either higher or lower in relation to the two you have already placed. Continue this with a few more balloons until you are happy with the quantity and look

Dot with a couple of tiny balloons to contrast

Last thing, is to then angle your balloons so that they give the appearance of floating in the direction you want.

Once at this stage, I then photographed my creation so that I had a visual reference to recreate when sticking it together! [Note to self- Lol!]

Something to note is, the final overall group of balloons look better in a circle or oval formation.

I’ve added some depth by using dimensionals to raise some of my balloons. I tied them off with some linen thread and anchored them under the sentiment. Then finished off with a little Glitter from my Wink of Stella pens.

Recently I was asked to make a wedding card. Here is what I came up with.

The stamp is from the Happy Notes stamp set, which is retiring in just one more week. It’s a rather large sentiment stamp so it’s perfect to use as the main feature like this. You know what I love the most – the line work design above and below the word Wedding – crazy I know! I love little details like that.

In this card, I highlighted the word Wedding with some gold embossing and layering it as flag over the top of the same image stamped in Blushing Bride ink. I was careful not to lose those cute little lines.

The rest of the card is made using printed vellum, Designer series paper, gold foil paper and finished with some ribbon. Hope you like it.

Another favourite stamp set on the retirement list is Zoo Babies. I just love all the cute little animals and they are just so perfect for baby and toddler birthday cards.

Using the sketch over at Can You Case it? [CYCI#120] this week, one of my favourite paper craft challenge sites, I made this cute little card for a friend of mine who recently had a little boy.

The sketch inspired me to use the stamps to create a background pattern. It’s a great alternative when you don’t want to use patterned paper or a big background stamp. You can always create your own to customise or coordinate your project.

The sentiment stamp set is from another favourite, And Many More, also on the retirement list. Check out what else is on the retiring list here.

Don’t you just love the stacked cups in the A Nice Cuppa stamp set. I don’t know about you but it reminds me of coffee/tea cup cupboard in the kitchen. I can’t remember when it started happening but now, my collection has grown and I have tea cups stacked just like this stamp! LOL!

This set made an entrance in the Occasions catalogue and sadly is making an exit at the end of this month as it’s retiring. The stamp set also coordinates with the Cups & Kettle framelits and I love how you can buy them in a bundle, saving you some $$ for other products!

After seeing Laura’s playtime, combining this set and the Timeless Textures stamp set, it inspired me to play too – same same but different.

It was also my first playtime with Timeless Textures stamp set and whilst I like it, I found I need to think about where to place my stamped images a little more. Which is great, as I’m always up for a challenge.